Ring Around the 'Bastion
by khaki knight
Summary: Because Leon would vanish for hours at a time in the ravine. And because Yuffie couldn't let a mystery go not-solved. And mostly because happy endings were always going to be in short supply.


_**Ring Around the 'Bastion**_

_A speculative, probably going to get turned AU the moment __**Kingdom Hearts 3 **__comes out, __**Kingdom Hearts**__ fic by khaki knight._

_Disclaimer: __**Kingdom Hearts **__and characters, related ideas, etc. are the legal property of __**Disney**__**/Square-Enix**__. Characters, etc. are only borrowed for what I hope will be entertainment purposes. Money was actually probably lost while working on this. This disclaimer applies to the entire work. Insert more legal jargon here if it will keep me from facing a lawsuit. Whatever._

000

The sun was hanging low in the west as Leon crested the first ridge leading to the ravine. His gunblade resting easily on his right shoulder, he paused for a moment, a foot kicked up on a loose rock.

It was the same route he took every evening, one last patrol against any encroaching Heartless.

(...Not that he had seen any for while now, actually. A year or two, at least. Things were calmer now, with even Cid's security claymores rarely triggering anymore. Sora had done a good job before he had finally headed back home, Leon supposed...)

But out of habit if nothing else then, before nightfall, he would always make—

—one last ring around the 'Bastion.

He frowned. _Garden_. _'Bastion_. He scowled. _Whatever._

(They were all supposed to be making the effort, after all. Even though the Garden they knew was never coming back. Even though in everything but name it was still really the 'Bastion.)

So. Effort. Keeping the settlement Heartless free. That was the sort of effort he could do. Easily. He could do that.

He hopped over a crack in the trail, before sparing another glance at the sunset. It was getting late. He needed to hurry.

As he walked, the wind whistled through the ravine, his only company. Normally he would have grabbed Yuffie before leaving the settlement. It was a useful sink for burning off some of her apparently limitless energy, even _if _she complained that being forced to assist with the patrols was a Travesty, with a capital 'T,' comparable to that one time when Scrooge's freezer broke down and all his Sea Salt Ice Cream had been Runied Forever!

(Despite her many protestations, it's not as if Yuffie ever said 'no' to going with him anyway, though.)

Leon hesitated as the path through the ravine split, one trail (the one he normally followed) heading back along the far rim of the ravine to the settlement, the other heading deeper into the ravine itself.

He didn't grab Yuffie because he wasn't really on patrol. Something else had called him out into the ravine, and it had started with that strange letter he had received a few days ago. He paused for only a few more seconds before following the path deeper into the ravine.

They probably would have understood. If he had explained. He considered them family, by this point, after all they had been through together. A running battle across several worlds, the dark of space outside a gummi-ship, the desperate defense of Traverse Town... They'd earned the bonds the hard way.

(Yes, even Cloud and Tifa, _when those two would just sit the hell down for five minutes and stop talking about Sephiroth_, and, and..)

Another few minutes of walking got him to the small plateau that the Committee had started informally referring to as the 'Dark Depths,' chiefly for its altogether loverly view of Maleficent's old stronghold. With a grunt, Leon slid his gunblade from his shoulder, stabbed it point down into the ground, and began to wait.

This was the place, at least according to the note. And the right time. Whoever wanted to meet him had been particularly specific in the note.

He folded his arms. Don't get him wrong. He'd had admirers before. He never had any interest (not since... Not since before the 'Garden fell), and, frankly, _still _didn't.

But this note was different. This note referred to things that he hadn't spoken of to a soul. This note was _impossible_.

It was only after fifteen minutes, when he had become _convinced _the whole thing had been a _terrible _idea, and whoever was behind it (_Yuffie_) was going to _pay_, that he heard the skittering of rocks.

"Ha ha ha. You look so _serious _right now," a voice called out, echoing against the ravine walls.

Leon's eyes narrowed. In one smooth motion, he grabbed up the handle of his gunblade, twirling with blade with a slight flourish as he settled into a combat stance. "You might as well come out," he declared. It wasn't... _quite... _a threat.

Some rocks skidded off from a ledge off to his right. He twisted towards the sound. "'You might as well come out,'" the voice mocked in a surprisingly good imitation of Leon. "Such teeth the lion has!" the voice continued, sounding terribly amused.

More rocks skittered loose behind him. He narrowed his eyes, then spun, gunblade lashing out. The intruder, however, seemed completely unperturbed, standing directly behind him and not flinching in the slightest as the gunblade streaked toward them.

Streaked toward _her_...

Leon recognized the face. It was impossible, but he recognized the face. His gunblade froze in midair...

000

**One Week Later...**

Leon was missing again.

Well, no, that wasn't true, he was ostensibly out patrolling in the ravine. Alone. And he had left without asking her to go with him. _Again_.

(It wasn't that she particularly _liked _patrolling, chiefly because all Leon would do on patrol was, you know, _patrol_, and Yuffie got _bored_, and _fast.)_

But the point was, he hadn't asked. He always asked, and then Yuffie would sigh and complain and ultimately agree because at the very least they were spending time together again, just the _two _of them (and any Heartless that bothered to show up) and it was _just like the old times_, god, if she closed her eyes she could pretend at the end of the day Leon and her and Aerith were going to pile into their little house in the second district and it was the three of them (and maybe sometimes Cid) against the world and their only responsibility was _to survive _not somehow rehabilitate their ruined homeworld, and—

Yuffie took a deep, shuttering mental breath. She was having troubles if she was viewing the endless siege that was Traverse Town as the good old days.

The point was, she was fully kitted out and sitting cross-legged on her bed, waiting for Leon to stop in the hall outside her door and call her like he always used to. But he had been gone for—oh god, had it been an hour already?!—a while now, and clearly wasn't coming back until he was actually finished with his patrol, and now she didn't know what to do with herself.

Well, there was only one answer, then: she'd go bother Aerith. Smoothly getting to her feet, Yuffie languidly made her way to the common room. As expected, Aerith was sitting in the overstuffed chair by the window, quietly humming to herself as she knitted in the fading sunlight.

"Aaaaaeeeerith, I'm _booooored_!" Yuffie complained, flopping down on Cid's couch. Flat on her back, Yuffie blew out a long puff of air, stirring her bangs. Within seconds she started kicking her feet against the couch.

It said a lot about Aerith that even this display did little to ruffle her.

(_That's Aerith for you,_ Yuffie thought dryly, _the patron saint of patience_.)

Without looking up from her knitting, Aerith arched an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Leon went on patrol without me again," Yuffie explained.

"Did he?" Aerith asked, in that tone she used when she _was _listening and _was _very concerned over your concerns, but at the same time, you know, there were bigger things to be concerned about, and could you perhaps also get some milk on your way back later tonight?

"It's the fifth night in a row," Yuffie continued.

"Mmmhmm," Aerith responded. Her knitting continued unabated.

Silence, save for the rhythmic kicking of Yuffie's feet. Evidently, Aerith did not share the same sense of concern re:Leon's weird, 'imma-exclude-Yuffie' behaviour.

_Now or never, I guess_... Yuffie thought. The extreme lack of Yuffie/Leon quality time had been only the tip of the weirdness iceberg. If that had been the only problem, then it would have been, like, no problemo, or whatever.

...It wasn't like she _cared _if she spent time with Leon, or anything.

(Blatant lies, as if she didn't regularly get the warm and tinglies from him.)

Regardless, something was up. His patrols were taking _forever_ the past few days. He was barely eating. She was pretty sure he wasn't sleeping. Hell, she was almost certain she hadn't polished that be-damned gunblade of his for at least two days, and that was as big a red flag as anything. She had been waiting for someone _else _to notice at least one of those things. And then maybe she would stop feeling so awkward that apparently she was the only one paying super close attention to Leon's schedule, or whatever.

Despite Yuffie's best efforts to psychically plant these ideas in her head, Aerith seemed impervious to such high level mental tricks, and continued calmly and serenely knitting.

_Dammit. _

She swung her legs over and kicked her feet out, before resting them back on the floor like some sort of normal person. Her fingers drumming wildly on her knees, she coughed lightly. "Hey, uh, Aerith, has Leon seemed all right to you lately?"

And maybe it was just Yuffie's tone (hesitant, unsure, so unlike her), but this was apparently enough to clear Aerith's threshold. She gently laid down her knitting, then folded her hands in her lap. "How do you mean?" she asked, leaning forward.

"I've just, uh, been noticing that he seems kinda more detached lately. Uh, more so than usual, I mean." At Aerith's raised eyebrow, Yuffie panicked. "N-not like I'm totally watching him all the time or something!" she stammered, just as a nervous laugh burbled out of her. _Oh gods, oh gods, shuddap, shuddap. _

Aerith's suspicious look held for another few seconds, before she apparently decided to let _that _go for the moment. "I haven't really noticed anything _too _out of the ordinary," she began gently. "And even so, from everything you're describing, it could just be he wants some time to himself." Aerith's eyes twinkled. "Remember that time he insisted on training alone in the Waterway alone that one week?"

Despite herself, Yuffie cackled. "How could I forget?"

Suffice it to say, Leon's solo training time had ended poorly when a pair of Heartless sneaked up on him. He fought them off with little trouble, but not before they had managed to knock him into the water. It took him ages to slog his way back to the house in 3rd district, and his lips were quite a pretty shade of blue by the time he made it.

"If you're really concerned," Aerith continued after a minute, "Have you tried talking to him about it?" Aerith asked.

And at this Yuffie hemmed and hawwed, and awkwardly rubbed one booted foot with another. "Not... exactly."

Aerith just nodded, as if she half expected that answer. "I'd recommend that to start with." She glanced at the clock on the mantle, her mouth quirking into a frown. "And I have to start working on dinner..." She stood, brushing the lap of her dress clean of invisible lint that only she could see. "Let me know how it goes," she called over her shoulder as she headed down the hall for the kitchen.

Yuffie stared after her for a long minute, her face scrunched up in a frown. _Stupid Aerith passing the stupid problem solving buck back to me..._ With a sigh, she flopped back down on the couch.

She didn't get too far in her self-pity party, though, before the door banged open, and Leon trooped in. He looked like he was moving on autopilot—his eyes seemed almost glazed over, staring everywhere and nowhere at once. He didn't even glance over to where Yuffie was on the couch before he clumped his way towards the bedrooms in the rear.

As she watched his embroidered crimson wings vanish down the rear hallway, Yuffie made up her mind.

_Talk, huh? _Okay, she could try that. She could be a Master Debater or whatever, right?

She mentally cringed. _There has to be a better way to say that..._

Lightning quick, she was up off the couch and racing off down the hall after Leon. "Hey! Leon! Hold on!"

Yuffie saw Leon stiffen, and only grudgingly come to a stop. He did not turn around to face her. "Yuffie," he rumbled. His voice sounded unnaturally rough.

"So, uh, how was the patrol?"

"Fine."

_Short, sweet, curt. Yeah, this is going well already_. Undaunted, however, Yuffie pressed on. "Anything exciting or unusual happen?" she asked, bouncing around him to look him in the face. Unsurprisingly, his eyes were closed, and his free hand was rubbing the scar across his bridge of his nose.

"Yuffie," he chastised.

"Seriously, anything new and different from the ordinary tonight... or, say, the last four nights? Anything at all?" she pressed. _Oh yeah, Yuffie Kisaragi, master of subtlety. _

"_Yuffie_," he repeated.

"Maybe something that would make you abandon your longtime mentor and partner and her badass ninja skills?"

This time instead of replying, he just marched right around her, angling for the shelter of his room.

Well, _hell_, she was out of options. "Squuuaaaall," she whined after him.

And you could tell how upset he was because he didn't even bother to correct her, but, gods above, she was _committed _now, it was do or die and she couldn't stop to think this over because she'd never work the nerve up _again, _and—

Using said badass ninja skills, she edged around in front of him again, forcing him to draw up short. "Squall, what's going on?" she pressed. "Just, _talk _to me! Tell me what's—"

And then suddenly he slammed his right palm into the wall. It made a magnificent CRACK, stopping Yuffie dead in her tracks. "_Enough,_" Leon growled_,_ eyes suddenly blazing wildly.

The... _intensity _of his gaze nearly made Yuffie's heart stop. "I-I..." she stammered, involuntarily taking a half step back.

For a second something that looked an awful lot like regret flashed across Leon's face, before he shoved past her and resumed his stride back down the hall. "Just _stop_," he called over his shoulder.

When he was no longer in sight, Yuffie sagged against the wall. She hugged her arms to herself.

Leon didn't lose control. Leon was all about control. If Leon would ever let Yuffie take him shopping, she was going to buy him a shirt that said "i (heart) control."

This wasn't like him.

And now she was really worried.

000

Clearly there was no other solution for Yuffie but to secretly follow Leon into the ravine the following night and finally put an end to the whole mystery in one fell swoop.

_Clearly._

So as not to endanger her plan, she cut a wide path around him the entire day. This mostly involved her hiding out around the bailey and surreptitiously keeping tabs on Leon with a badass spyglass Sora had brought her from one world or another.

For Leon's part, he stuck to his usual schedule. One cup of Cid's crappy coffee (Cid never felt the need to search for better coffee, since he was just going to dump whiskey into it anyway) and a croissant for breakfast. Then Leon was off down to the worksite where they were finishing construction on the new wing of housing. Break for lunch at Scrooge's (ham and egg sandwich, nothing new there), before checking in with the restoration efforts at the castle (they almost had the first two floors half-way repaired).

Then things got trickier. He reported back home, where the rest of the committee always tried to have dinner together. It only occurred to her right then that her not being at dinner might possibly throw up a red flag for Leon and blow her cover. By the time she got back to the house (breathless from running back down from the bailey), she was promptly informed by Aerith that Leon had already departed for his 'patrol.'

Yuffie wolfed down dinner in a matter of moments, earning a _very _disapproving look from Aerith and an impressed thumbs up from Cid. (For his part, Merlin couldn't be bothered to remove his nose from his current tome of magical lore. Cloud and Tifa were no shows, probably gods knew where on another fruitless search for Sephiroth.)

And then it was time for the main event: tracking and following Leon through the ravine. But that should be no problem for Yuffie Kisaragi, last grandmaster of the Wutainese style of ninjitsu.

(If she had never _technically _passed the grandmaster's exam, well, whatever. She was the last Wutainese ninja _period_, so that made her master of whatever was left of the school by default. _Clearly_.)

She hit upon his trail surprisingly easily, and it wasn't long before she was delving into the depths of the ravine. It was... _concerning_, on some level. The Heartless threat was negligible these days, but that didn't mean that the ravine was particularly _safe_. Put aside that the blue basalt of the ravine was _already _notoriously prone to developing cracks and fissures at an unexpected moment's notice; the Committee (and Sora, Donald and Goofy) sort of _had _fought a war through it a couple of times already, so who knew what kind of structural weakness were just waiting for the unlucky (stupid loner) hiker.

Yuffie's fears about rock slides and fissures unfounded (_for the moment_, she thought grimly), she quickly found herself near the 'end of the line' (because Leon or no, there was no way in _hell_ that she would willingly set foot in Maleficent's old haunts).

Edging around the last bend in the trail, she peer out over the Dark Depths. In the low light of sunset, it was hard to make out if Leon was anywhere nearby, or if it was just a bunch of Leon-shaped shadows. It was mostly the latter, but after a few tense seconds of scanning the area, she spotted a familiar glint of too many belt-buckles.

For a long second Yuffie considered just rushing up to him and demanding answers, years of ninjitsu training _be _damned... and then she noticed he was not alone. And then she noticed what type of person was with him.

Oh.

_Oh._

Leon had a girl.

...

Wait, _Leon _had a _girl_!?

This ran contrary to everything Yuffie knew about Leon. (Admittedly, not that there was much to know, starting primarily with 'Leon was oblivious and paid absolutely no attention to the opposite sex' and ended around 'Leon used waaaay too much shampoo'). He had given up on pretty much _all _female attention of a romantic kind since his raven-haired princess had died, way back when the 'Garden fell.

(...not that he talked about her very often. But then again, it wasn't like he needed to, it was obvious, you just needed to look at him and you could see a her-shaped hole in him.)

Yuffie shook her head and turned her attention back to the two of them. They were both facing off back towards the lights of the settlement, Leon leaning against the ravine wall, the strange woman sitting on a cleft above and to his right. She was dressed all in black (…and something about her outfit seemed maddeningly familiar to Yuffie but she couldn't place it), and her blonde hair was cropped short. As they talked, she kicked her heels against the rock face she was sitting on, looking altogether very pleased.

_And why not_, Yuffie thought, _she's got Leon all to herself out here..._

(...Not that she was jealous or anything.)

After another moment of hesitation, Yuffie decided to creep closer, picking her way carefully along the broken rocks. As she neared them, she ducked behind a particularly large free-standing boulder. (Judging from the size and almost too perfect cleave on one side, almost definitely a remnant from the throw-down Sora and Sephiroth had down this way.)

At that distance, it was obvious the two of them were talking. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she focused on making _anything _out, her finely trained eavesdropper ears working over time. Still nothing. She was close enough to make out the barest murmur of voices, but she was unable to pick out any individual words.

Yuffie frowned.

...or at least she assumed _voices_, but it very quickly became apparent that the conversation was painfully one-sided. As in, Leon wasn't saying anything at all.

She pulled free the spyglass, and tried to get a closer look. Leon's expression was like storm clouds, he wasn't saying anything! The blonde woman went on and on, an expression of predatory _glee_ on her face, and several times Leon winced in pain, but _he didn't say anything_.

After the better part of an hour, the blonde woman seemed satisfied. She waived a hand, apparently dismissing Leon. As he marched away, his expression was as stone.

Once Leon was safely out of sight, the woman leaped down from the cleft, and began picking her way to some other part of the ravine.

"Hey, you!" Yuffie called at the retreating form, bursting from out behind her boulder.

The woman in black stopped. She didn't seemed surprised, though, as she slowly craned around to face Yuffie. "I was wondering when you would show yourself."

Yuffie's hand suddenly twitched with a sudden urge to draw the massive shuriken strapped to her back. She bit it back, as attempting to murder the acquaintance of one of your closest (friends?) was probably not the best way to make a first impression.

She came to regret that decision almost immediately.

The blonde woman spread her hands in a wide shrug. "You were doing a _terrible _job of concealing yourself, you know. Even poor _Squall _probably would have noticed you—if he hadn't been so distracted," the stranger continued offhandedly. The stranger then favored Yuffie with an askance gaze. "You dress like you're supposed to be some sort of ninja, but you're _really _doing a terrible job of it."

Yuffie's eyes narrowed. Normally she would have been exactly as incensed at the insult as the blonde woman obviously wanted, but something else was demanding her attention at that moment. "What did you call him?" Yuffie snapped sharply.

The blonde woman smiled, the same cruel smile she had been wearing with Leon earlier. "Squall. That's his name after all." The stranger twirled on one heel. "Squall Leonhart, failed knight extraordinaire." She giggled as if it was the funniest thing in the world.

Okay, _that _was enough. Yuffie pulled her oversized shuriken from her back. "Who are you?" she demanded.

The stranger, however, didn't seem to be interested in answering questions. "Nah, ah, ah," she chided, slowly wagging a finger back and forth, "that would be _spoiling._" She smirked. "I think that's all for today. Time to leave, little girl!"

Oh, that was _it_! Bitch was goin' down!

With a wordless cry, Yuffie hurled herself at the woman, preparing a mighty downward swing of her shuriken. The woman didn't even flinch, dodging smoothly to one side, twisting and planting a foot firmly in Yuffie's side. Yuffie managed to get out a startled squeak before she went tumbling.

Yuffie rolled head over heel for a few feet, then managed to come to a skittering stop with the help of a planted hand... only to get an _excellent _view of the stranger running after her. Before Yuffie could react, the stranger slammed a kick into Yuffie's midsection, with enough force to knock the wind out of her again a flip her onto her back. With a mad cackle, the stranger than vaulted Yuffie's prone form and vanished down one side trail of the ravine or another.

As Yuffie lay there, flat on her back and aching, it became obvious that there was more going on than what she was seeing.

_Clearly._


End file.
